🚲 edi.bike | issue 46 | 24th June '24
your weekly edinburgh cycling digest
📰 News this Week
🐝 A bicycle to get you from A to Bees…
The last thing you expect when you park up on Lothian Road is probably returning to find your steed covered in a swarm of bees [x], and yet this week… a local beekeeper was soon on the scene to gather the buzzy pals and take them somewhere more suitable.
(I like the idea all of this took place without the bike’s owner ever finding out. 🍯)
⚽ Success for the ‘Rolling Subs’ ride to Germany
Five pals have cycled all the way from Edinburgh to Cologne for an over-35s fans team game, raising money for Bikes for Refugees along the way. They made it [x], and have very nearly made their fundraising target if you have a few quid to spare. The bikes they rode on the way were then donated to local refugees [x].
🌊 A New Development and Active Travel Consultation for Seafield
Regeneration plans are afoot in Seafield, including active travel links to Porty, Craigentinny, and Leith. Leith Feeder Ride [x] have a great roundup thread (unrolled) on the scheme; you can also view the masterplan proposals [PDF] and respond to the consultation survey which is open until the 31st July.
🌅Over a 1,200 cyclists ride Carlisle to Cramond for ‘Ride to the Sun’ 2024
—
EdFoC-affiliated ‘Ride to the Sun’ took place finishing in the wee hours of Sunday morning, with 1200-1300 riders making the overnight journey from Carlisle to finish up at Cramond Beach in time for sunrise. There’s some photos and details on their Facebook post.
🌆 Local Bits
👁️🗨️ ENDS THIS WEDNESDAY: The Dalry Living Well Locally consultation runs until 26th June, do respond if you haven’t already! More in our ‘Infrastructure & Consultations’ section below ⬇️
✊ This Saturday’s Critical Mass is a shorter city centre loop finishing up at the Edinburgh Climate Festival in the Meadows. More details in the ‘Events’ bit below (2pm at Middle Meadow Walk!);
🖼️ There’s a great album of photos on Facebook [FB] from Porty Community Energy’s excellent ‘Sea Rising Festival’ on Saturday;
🧓 Edinburgh Leisure have added more cycle skills course dates to their Ageing Well Programme, whose goal is to increase the number of older adults who are active and connected in Edinburgh. Check out the wider programme page and the flyer for the next 11 week course [PDF] that starts on 15th July;
🏫 A new report by Sustrans documents the new new low-traffic ‘School Street / School Zone’ recently unveiled in Dalry to improve safety and air quality at school drop-off / pick-up times;
From Last Week:
- Merchiston Community Council on the Polwarth Junction debacle;
- “Edinburgh the latest city to see record number of people travelling by bike ”;
- ‘Davidson’s Mains parents call for council to speed up road safety improvements’;
- “Beer Bike Bust: outlaw bigger bikes, or embrace them?” - available to watch back on Youtube;
- CEC hiring ‘Transport Officer in Programme Management for the Active Travel Team’ - Job Listing;
- Cycling UK launch their new 2024-29 Strategy [PDF] with a rather lovely video intro;
🎨 There’s an opportunity to sublet a studio space with the lovely folks at The Wee Spoke Hub, available now - see all the details on their Facebook post;
🛣 Route Closures and Issues
- The Crawford Bridge - between Albion Ter and Bothwell St off Easter Rd - is closed as of today until the 30th of August for refurbishment;
- Reopening delayed until 30th June: Argyle Place is closed northbound for sewer repairs by Scottish Water. As a knock-on from this work, the last 20m of South Meadow Walk footway and cycleway as approaching Argyle Place from the West is closed, with a diversion onto the Melville Drive footway and a bit of a mess at the segregated turning / crossing cycleway at the bottom of Middle Meadow Walk;
- Melville St at Walker St has some partial closures of the CCWEL segregated lanes for major works as part of the public realm improvements that recently commenced and run until December this year.
➕ Nationally
🗳️ Ahead of the UK General Election on 4th July, Cycling UK have published a comparison of the political parties’ manifestos when it comes to cycling;
🚌 From Jarlath Flynn [x]:
Karen O'Hare from the University of Strathclyde is carrying out a survey on bike bus participation in Scotland. Please consider completing this 5 minute survey if you are based in Scotland.
🌎 Elsewhere
🦺 “Dismal failure of UK road safety policy revealed in latest [European Transport Safety Council] country performance report. 25 countries have done better over last decade. Ministers [at the Department of Transport] should hang their heads in shame rather than lie about so-called ‘war on motorists’.” — @DavidDJWard [x]
🧵 Came across this extremely well-sourced thread from last year [x] about countering conspiratorial narratives surrounding 15-minute cities, which is worth your time (unrolled / non-X link here);
🤝 Transport & Environment Committee - June 20th 2024, Roundup by Ben Seven
The City of Edinburgh Council’s Transport and Environment Committee (TEC) held their last meeting before summer recess last Thursday 20th - here’s all the cycling-and-cycle-safety-adjacent items summarised.
Links:
🌐 Meeting Page | 📄 Business Bulletin [PDF] | 📂 Agenda Reports [PDF] | 🙋 Motions and Amendments [PDF] | 📺 Watch Webcast | 💬 Commentary thread from Spokes [x]
🚣 Roseburn to Union Canal
A response to Cllr Mckenzie’s motion to May’s TEC — for temporary infrastructure to tie the new ‘Roseburn to Union Canal’ link not only to Fountainpark, but beyond it to the actual canal — were rebuffed in an officer response in the Business Bulletin (page 14) this month. Questions were asked at TEC regarding the possibility of a temporary Toucan crossing to facilitate the link required, which is otherwise not slated for development until 2026-2027, but officers asserted that the fact there is some existing temporary lane infrastructure in place, and outlined the complexity of adding temporary crossings is non-trivial in terms of cost and therefore not really viable. The wider piece of work at Fountainbridge / Dundee Street will involve redesigned junctions to properly facilitate the full route, when it’s eventually built.
Cllr Aston noted that the motion’ answer provided in the bulletin, which proposes adding an extra 100m of cycling in order to cross and use the opposite temporary cycleway, also mentions use of a pedestrian crossing which would technically be illegal to cycle across.
The answer betrayed that the recommended route at the opening of this £17m project will be to ride 50m onwards past Gibson Ter, dismount, cross at the pedestrian crossing outside Kwik Fit, then ride 50m back again in order to access the supposed (named!) destination for this keystone project.
It is painfully, classically Edinburgh to manage to spend this kind of money on a section of active travel network and then abandon users a few hundred metres from the next section of popular or protected route - George St, anyone?
👷 Safety and Public Realm Improvements at Elm Row and Brunswick Street
During the construction of the Trams to Newhaven project - still in its ‘snagging era’, more on that later in the year - it was agreed that the design of the downhill cycleway at Elm Row and its proximity to the bus stops there was dangerous, and would likely require revision at a later date. Questions were asked about this at TEC this month, but essentially it came down to the delays inevitable if the project was amended while it was ongoing, rather than being revisited and modified after delivery.
Currently, the cycleway splits at the top of Elm Row, with the 1.5m downhill path continuing adjacent to the main road and pavement, passing in front of two bus stops, and the uphill path runs behind those stops on the Elm Row side. The new proposals - visuals for which have been circulated to Councillors but were considered ‘too rough and ready’ for inclusion in the report - instead place a 3m wide bi-directional cycleway behind the shelters, eating into the space currently given over to car parking. Well well, look at that sustainable transport hierarchy finally having its wicked way with parking allocation…
The spaces at Elm Row will be reduced from the current count of 16 to 8 spaces, without reducing the number of blue badge spaces available for folks who are differently abled. Some of the spaces will have timed loading allocations, to facilitate deliveries to adjacent businesses. There will also be some soft landscaping changes based on pedestrian desire lines currently passing through existing planted areas.
Further down, Montgomery St will gain a dropped kerb for easier cycle access, and bollards to prevent the otherwise inevitable encroachments by people with more horsepower than sense. Bollards in Leith! Long may their incursion hold strong, and may their territory and number grow!
These changes will be delivered with some other aspects to facilitate loading and local access. Quoting from the Report:
- Further loading to be provided on Leith Walk between Brunswick Street and Elm Row;
- Brunswick Street to be redesigned to allow for vehicles exiting to turn left however no access permitted from Leith Walk. This will include a larger pedestrian “plaza” area and reduced width junction to prevent illegal manoeuvres;
- Bollards to be installed between Elm Row and Montgomery Street with further lining works carried out and surfacing of Montgomery Street;
- Elm Row cycleway changes to be implemented which include a bi-directional cycleway and widening of Elm Row Bus stops.
There will be associated TTRO and TRO processes, and as such we will likely see some more detailed drawings of the proposed changes soon.
⚙️ Cargo Bike Movement at TEC
We reported following last month’s TEC that an emergency motion had passed for officers to work with Edinburgh cycling stalwarts Cargo Bike Movement to provide assistance as the shifting funding landscape began to jeopardise their future plans. This month, folded into a report on new ‘People and Place’ funding, was the opportunity for the Council to match some potential upcoming funding for the organisation and help secure its immediate future and work with it in the search for more sustainable ongoing revenue.
The organisation’s representatives gave a truly impressive, frank and honest deputation to the assembled committee. This included a truly strong introduction from trustee Jonty Fairless:
“We started as a collection of volunteers back in 2020. delivering food which was bound for landfill to co-ops and food banks in the city, using cargo bikes to make this movement… Today we own and operate the largest cargo bike fleet in Scotland, with a mission to promote the use of cargo bikes for fairer, greener and healthier society within Edinburgh. We run the biggest free cargo bike lending scheme in the country, and we've trained 164 cargo bike riders since establishing. We're still delivering food, but now we have a standing army of 50 volunteers who are out on the road every weekday evening shipping food to those who need it most. Alongside this, the movement runs taster engagement sessions for the public. We support Circular Economy organisations like the ETL and the cats and dogs with zero carbon freight and we introduce and train Edinburgh businesses to trial zero carbon logistics. We operate the Tollcross active travel hub, which is home and incubator to several community organisations and we are working to plant more at the moment. So From those humble beginnings, we've kind of grown into this keystone organisation for modal change within the city.”
Throughout the questions that were asked of them during the verbal deputation, the CBM team made a compelling case for their role as the hub of cargo bike use, promotion and community engagement in the city. Their business engagement work is in its infancy, but they are a ‘connecting force in the city’ in terms of the connections they have fostered and the work they’ve done with other organisations such as Edinburgh Tool Library, Porty Community Energy and more.
They have a funding application ongoing from Paths for All, and at TEC were looking for match funding from the council. For this to take place from the council’s cycle revenue budget, money intended for spend on cycle counters (“Around half of the counters are obsolete and not currently able to produce data”) would need to be redistributed to CBM instead - and it was acknowledged that the council is currently operating in a ‘constrained funding environment’. This was a difficult call, well debated in TEC because of how valuable counter data is in reflecting on the efficacy of policy interventions, though one wonders if they’re considered key how did we get to half of the counters being ‘obsolete’…
Cllr Whyte, in his role as Conservative representative for unabated capitalist wrongthink, asked a remarkable question of the team - if their work is so popular and successful, why is it not already self-sustaining? The gentleman seemed genuinely puzzled, as though nobody’s ever taken the time to explain to him that every worthwhile human endeavour doesn’t necessarily boil down to number-go-up fiscal accrual.
Of course, the Councillor also then went on to contradict his own line of ‘success’ questioning by asserting that the levels of cargo bike uptake - and general numbers of folk reached - were unsatisfactory, failing draw a line between people who might hire a cargo bike for free for a week to try it out and a good number of those people who might not be able to then simply decide to drop a few grand on one straight away. Can you imagine not having a few thousand quid lying about ready? The Tories can’t.
Enough about the motor lobbyists. The motion passed, which is tremendous. Fingers crossed that the Cargo Bike Movement application to Paths for All goes on to be successful, and that we see more of these wonderful folks and their impactful work going forward.
“Zero emissions deliveries are important for many of our transport strategies & we can't afford to lose an org that has been central in bringing cargo bikes closer to people & businesses.” — Cllr Jule Bandel [x]
💰 ‘People and Place’ Funding
From the report:
“For nine years, the Council has managed a programme of ‘behaviour change’ initiatives to encourage people to walk and cycle more. The programme has been funded by Transport Scotland’s Smarter Choices, Smarter Places (SCSP) revenue funding stream through which the Council received approximately £500,000 per annum. SCSP has now been discontinued and a new funding stream established - ‘People and Place’... administered by South East Scotland Transport Partnership (SEStran) in the case of Edinburgh on behalf of Transport Scotland.
Some People and Place funding will be disbursed directly via SEStran. However, the Council was invited to submit proposals for a portion of the available funding. People and Place funding is ring-fenced for behaviour change and access to bikes, with the following themes set by SEStran: ‘Encouraging Active Travel: Young People’; ‘Active Ways to Work’; ‘Street audits and enabling facilities’; and ‘Encouraging Active Travel: Communities’. Unlike the previous SCSP funding, a sizeable portion of the People and Place funding is further ring-fenced for capital expenditure.
The funding awarded to the Council for 2024/25 is £290,000 (revenue) and £508,700 (capital)
Appendix 1 of the report is a breakdown of what the Council has applied for from this fund, which was interesting (page 208-209 of the report pack). Some highlights:
- Funding for more scooter / cycle parking in schools;
- Funding for Bike4ever training for senior secondary school pupils in SIMD areas;
- A budget for cargo bikes for the council, to support seemingly 'kindergarten, occupational therapist' usage;
- £123k for further on-street cycle parking;
- Proposed “Encouraging Active Travel (Communities)” grants for SCOREScotland and the Edinburgh & Lothian Greenspace Trust;
- Cycle hangar programme and associated subsidies (for secure on-street cycle parking for residents);
- A proposed grant for the wonderful Thistle Foundation for “Hire/loan support to access adaptive bikes/mobility aids & targeted training/promotion of mobility aid friendly routes via disability advocacy networks & buddy events to improve confidence with travelling actively”.
🚛 Safety of CEC’s Heavy Operated Vehicles
An adjusted motion emerged from 21st March 2024 TEC meeting following the tragic death of Thomas Wong, recognising that while Thomas was struck and killed by the driver of a non-council heavy goods vehicle, that the council should be reviewing its own fleet and HGV movements to ensure risks to vulnerable road users are mitigated. This report to TEC was the response.
“Whilst AEBS is generally fitted as standard, there are other systems which the Council seeks to fit as additional technology to aid drivers. This includes radar detection for cyclists. This technology will detect cyclists approaching the nearside (passenger side) of the vehicle and warn the driver. There is also an audible and visual warning for the cyclist when the vehicle is intending to turn left. This type of system has been specified on all procured truck mounted vehicles since 2016 and, as a result of the fleet replacement programme, all trucks will be fitted with this technology (it is anticipated) by the end of 2025.”
There was also discussion as TEC considered this item, about how the council could better define what is considered the ‘area’ of a school, in terms of drawing up a boundary around each school to be able to flag up to waste collection team drivers - as well as some discussion about powers for addressing use of HGVs outside of the council’s own fleet, for example the Direct Vision Standard used in London to issue permits for access and operation in certain areas.
TEC meet again on the 15th of August.
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📆 Events and Happenings
📆 Upcoming / Ongoing
☕️ Active Travel Cafe is a national, weekly online active travel event; news, talks & discussion via Zoom on Tuesdays at 5pm. They’ve recently published a list of speakers for the next month or so.
🎭 Still one more event left on the EdFoC events calendar:
- 🎭 A Quick Brown Fox – An Evening With Ayesha McGowan - Thursday 11th July
🏳️🌈 From The Wee Spoke Hub:
Join us for a special Bike DIY session with LEAP Sports Festival Fortnight, exclusively for the LGBTIQ+ community! Enjoy a fun evening of bike repairs led by and for our amazing community.
📅 Tuesday 25 June | 16:00 - 20:00 (staggered arrivals) | 13 Guthrie Street, EH1 1JG
🛠️ What to Expect:
⭐ Warm, well-lit space with bike stands
⭐ Wee Spoke Hub tools, spare parts, and expert help
⭐ Old clothes recommended (aprons & lab coats available)
⭐ Sign in, get matched with a volunteer, and dive into your bike repairs! Remember, patience is key as we rely on our fantastic volunteers.
Not part of the LGBTIQ+ community? Join us for our Thursday night Bike DIY sessions!🚴♂️🚴♀️
🗣️ Friday 28th June, 6.30pm - 8.30pm: ‘Towpath Talk #6’ at Biketrax - the final talks before a wee summer break:
Cheryl completed her first triathlon in her 50s after encouragement from friends. Although she ran a lot and swam for pleasure, her biking skills left much to be desired. She found that with consistent training and better kit she was able to achieve her goals and, to her astonishment, now in her 60s she is qualified and races for the GB age group team. Her story is one of how to train to be competitive on a bike and of adapting her training for her age.
Helen and Mike met in January 2016 on Tinder where Mike said he really wanted to cycle around the world. Helen’s first message was “when are we leaving?”. Fifteen months later, they’d sold everything they owned, quit their jobs and were waving goodbye to family and friends to head off for a very long bike tour. After cycling through thirty countries on four continents over seventeen months and covering around thirty thousand kilometres, they arrived home with plenty of stories to tell.
Enjoy canapés included in the ticket price, with mocktails and drinks available from the cafe on the night. More info & Booking »
✊ Edinburgh Critical Mass is coming up on Saturday 29th June, 2pm Middle Meadow Walk; a fun, friendly and welcoming mass protest ride, with the route typically published a few days before to their Facebook, Mastodon, X and email list. Ever want to join the ride late, but not sure where it is? You can use Critical Maps - an anonymous location-sharing app for cyclists in critical mass events, aiding coordination through real-time map visualisation. Only one or two people need to use it from the start, so that others can see where the ride is.
✊🏼 🎭 EdFoC | Ongoing - 'Pedal Power', a free exhibition on cycling and activism in Edinburgh, co-curated by Critical Mass Edinburgh, Infrasisters, Spokes and folks running Bike Buses across the city - at the Museum of Edinburgh running until the 22nd September.
Edinburgh Council archives --- who recently launched the ‘Edinburgh 900’ project to celebrate 900 years since Edinburgh became a royal burgh --- have also asked ‘Pedal Power’ to be part of the programme and will tour the exhibition around communities in Edinburgh after it finishes at the Museum of Edinburgh in September.
🔁 Weekly Events
⚡️ Porty Community Energy are trialling a weekly Wednesday evening advice drop-in [fb];
🛠️ Edinburgh Tool Library host a weekly Bike Kitchen providing 'tools, spare parts, and expertise' to 'learn, grow, and connect with others'; Open every Wednesday from 3pm.
✴️ Regular events on at The Wee Spoke Hub - follow their schedule here including a Bike DIY Session this Thursday 27th, 4pm - 8pm;
🫂 Help Needed
🚴🏼♀️ From Bikes for Refugees (Scotland):
CALLING SESSIONAL BIKE MECHANICS / SOLE TRADERS 🛠
We are updating our sessional workers database. We occasionally require mechanics on a sessional basis for short-term work/projects.
Please email your details & hourly/daily rates to:
[admin@bikesforrefugees.scot](mailto:admin@bikesforrefugees.scot)
Ongoing:
- 🌊 Closes soon: Porty Community Energy crowdfunding their Sea Rising Festival;
- 🚴🏼 Friends of the Skelf bike park and pump track just off Holyrood Park are [raising money currently;
- 💁 Help Fund a New Specialised Active Chair for Porty Community Energy Activist Roseanne Sinclair at her campaign page;
- 🚌 Volunteer to help marshal a local school Bike Bus - see the Bike Bus Hub Directory;
- 🙋 Sustrans seek volunteers for their ‘I Bike’ school programme: teaching kids, maintaining a bike fleet or marshalling rides with pupils;
- 🗨️ Spokes are in need of new members for their Planning and Resources groups;
- 🤝 SW20 are a Co-op Local Community Fund Cause - support them via this page;
- 🆘 Support Bikes for Refugees with an SMS donation 🐦or on EasyDonate;
🌈 Infrastructure Progress & Consultations
✍🏽 ‘Spaces for People’ Lanes in East of Edinburgh - ETRO
This ‘East Area’ Experimental Traffic Order (ETRO/21/28A) covers a number of Covid-era parking suspensions used to facilitate bollarded cycle lanes around London Rd, Willowbrae and Duddingston, including cycle routes used by school pupils, teachers and parents to and from multiple primary and secondary schools. It is currently open for comments until 28th October by emailing TRO.Consultations@edinburgh.gov.uk quoting ETRO/21/28A.
🐳 Connecting Granton Waterfront
A new Granton-focused consultation running until Tuesday 16th July. From the project’s Consultation Hub:
This project proposes a network of safe and well-connected routes as part of a walking, wheeling and cycling network for Granton Waterfront. Our ideas have been designed to make walking, wheeling and cycling safer and easier through the new and existing areas of the neighbourhood. The proposals include wider pavements, better cycling provision, placemaking improvements including new and improved landscaping and upgrades to key crossing points and junctions on the following routes:
- Forthquarter Park
- Waterfront Broadway
- Waterfront Park
- Waterfront Avenue
- West Shore Road
- The Promenade
View the Community Engagement Portal and give feedback via the Survey.
There is also the opportunity to attend a public drop-in event at Granton Station, Station Square, Waterfront Broadway, Edinburgh EH5 1FU; this Thursday 13th June 2024 3pm - 7pm, or Sunday 16th June 2024 from 10am to 2pm.
🏖️ Brunstane and Portobello
- ‘Edinburgh roads: 'Radical changes' on way for Portobello High Street and Brighton Place’ in The Evening News;
- The ETRO scheme closing Brunstane Rd to motorised traffic has been made permanent.
🌳 Meadows to George Street
- 🎤 CEC Press Release
- 🌐 Project Website
- ✍🏽 Detailed Design Documents: - 📄 Teviot Place, Forrest Road, Bristo Place [PDF] - 📄 Forrest Road, Candlemaker Row and George IV Bridge [PDF] - 📄 George IV Bridge, The Royal Mile and Bank Street [PDF] - 📄 North Bank Street and the Mound [PDF] - 📄 The Mound, Princes Street and Hanover Street [PDF] - 📄 Market Street [PDF]
- 📜 Redetermination Order (RSO);
- 📜 Traffic Regulation Order (TRO);
⚓️ 'Signs of life' [x] - 241 days of planned cycleway construction works starting some time between late Summer and Autumn this year - on the 'Foot of the Walk to Ocean Terminal' protected cycle route as part of Leith Connections, which promises to be a great continuation of the segregated routes slowly taking root in the city centre;
🚴🏼♀️ Nearby Midlothian Council have launched ‘On the Move Midlothian: Our Active Travel Strategy for Everyone’, consisting of two parallel consultations on Active Travel (one of which has now closed) and also wider transport concerns across their council area:
The active travel draft strategy, which includes measurable and achievable targets, focuses on making Midlothian a place where getting around in a way that makes you physically active, such as walking and wheeling, will be an easy, convenient, cheap and realistic option for all.
📄 You can view the draft strategy online [PDF].
Deadline of 22nd July for the 'Active Travel Survey'.
👁️🗨️ ENDS THIS WEDNESDAY: The Dalry Living Well Locally consultation runs until 26th June:
Thanks for reading - ride safe 🚲
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